The Farmers’ Union of Wales has welcomed the opportunity to discuss critical farming issues with Secretaries of State, Michael Gove and Alun Cairns, and the Welsh Farming Minister Lesley Griffiths at the Royal Welsh Show.
As part of these discussions, the FUW highlighted the disastrous impacts of a no-deal Brexit on Welsh agriculture and the union pursued its policy that no responsible UK Government would allow the UK to leave without a deal.
The FUW continues to highlight the grave economic impacts for agriculture, rural communities and other industries of a hard Brexit. Latest figures from Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) suggest that 92.5% of Welsh lamb exports could disappear under a no-deal Brexit and with the tariff rates proposed under this scenario. The union also expressed concern that the Republic of Ireland could still act as a tariff-free backdoor for cheaper produce to the home market.
Alongside issues pertaining to Brexit, the FUW raised on-going concerns relating to both Bovine TB and future NVZ-type regulations.
The FUW reiterated its call for the wider consequences of TB to be recognised in Welsh eradication policy and also highlighted that the high TB levels in Wales could jeopardize future export markets and trade negotiations. At present, criteria within the EU for achieving TB Free Status consists of i) demonstrating that the percentage of herds confirmed as infected with TB has not exceeded 0.1% per year for all herds for six consecutive years and ii) at least 99.9% of herds have achieved TB Free Status for each year for six consecutive years.
The FUW also reiterated its concerns regarding the lack of proportionality displayed by increasing the areas of Wales subject to NVZ type regulations from 2.7% to 100% and highlighted the significant costs to compliant farmers of adhering to these regulations.